In the middle of 2013, I started what I called my weekly WhatsApp inspirational messaging. At the time, I had created a WhatsApp messaging broadcast group, where I sent out weekly inspirational messages to my WhatsApp contacts that included my friends, associates and family.

I thought to myself, that in a world we live in where the media is known to propagate and promote more bad news than good and which leaves people continually living in despair. I thought I could be the light that broadcasts the messages of hope, upliftment, encouragement, victory and motivation. This was and has been my inspiration. Basically I write to inspire.

I continued my weekly inspirational WhatsApp messaging for a year, owing to the positive feedback I received from all who got the messages and re-broadcast it as well. My friends, associates and family kept telling me that the words of encouragement I sent were having such positive impact on their lives. I was truly inspired by their words.

One evening, after a year of running my WhatsApp inspirational messaging campaigns, I was reflecting on the impact I had had on people so far and a thought came to me that I could reach a larger audience with these words, and it was that evening that my inspirational blog, CE Inspired was born. That was in 2014. I knew by sharing my motivation on my blog, I could reach more people and be a blessing to them than I could through my WhatsApp inspirational messaging campaigns and the result of the positive impact CE Inspired has had on the lives of people all across the world who read from it has been amazingly tremendous. I almost can’t believe it that what started as a little selfless initiative through a commitment to being blessing can have such high and growing positive impact.
I continued to nurture my writing skills through my work on my inspirational blog, CE Inspired and in 2015, I received a thought to write a book that
will lift people from obscurity and help them realize their dreams, no what it is they had ever dared to dream of becoming.

I’m a believer in turning the seemingly impossible to possible. I didn’t second guess and I obeyed this thought and my book, Treasure: Personal Guide to an Inspired Life, was born. Believe when I say that situations, events and circumstances moved in my favour and the Almighty led me to my publishers at WestBow Press.

It was indeed very beautiful working with my publishing team at WestBow Press. It was a breath of fresh air. They extended such incredible and warm communication, assistance and professionalism to ensure the best outcome of my first real book. I’m super excited!

Writing a book or undertaking any other initiative is truly an act of faith. When you move confidently in total obedience, doors will open up for you where there were only walls.

WestBow Press authors who’d like to share a 350-600 word experience related to the self-publishing of their books, are invited to do so by sending a message through the WestBow Press Facebook page and follow the WestBow Press Twitter account @WestBowPress. WestBow Press reserves the right to edit stories for content, grammar, punctuation and length.

I am sharing with you the wonder and joys of Christ, who found me and made me new, who has lifted my Spirit to a place my heart was longing for. My life didn’t start out charming, though I thought I married prince charming. I was blinded by life. I was merely existing. I had everything I wanted: a husband, five sons, a home, and two cars. What more could I possibly want? Even with all that was before me, I felt empty. I loved my family, but I longed for something more. I could have filled an ocean with the emptiness I felt. I was drowning in it.

Slowly God was working His purpose in me, polishing all the rough edges that surrounded me for many years. My soul was slowly being awakened, and the scales taken off my eyes. I was beginning to see the forest through the trees. What a beautiful site. All these things I had passed by were coming into view. God’s love rose me out of bed to see the morning’s first light. Through the Holy Spirit God had given me a task to empty my soul, and lay my heavy burdens on Him. At first I balked, and the feeling intensified within me. I got up, found a pen and notebook, and proceeded to write. My words started to flow like the rapids on a river. I came to some deep, dark-gray areas with a lot of jagged rocks. I ricocheted off them until finally I came to still waters.
I thought my task of writing was finish, but God had other plans for me. The Holy Spirit introduced me to poetry. This time my words flowed along like a gentile stream. When I finished each psalm and poem, I was astonished at what I had written. The most beautiful words I had ever read. So today I share these poems and psalms from my heart to yours. To all who love and adore God, who believes in the love and blood of Christ, and trust in the Holy Spirit for His
guidance to eternity!

Saved for eternity, my hope was found through Christ. I cannot express my heart felt gratitude to WestBow Press for the amazing people who lovingly guided me through every step of the publishing process. Each person that I and my husband dealt with had God’s glory in mind. I originally was going to do a self- publish on line, but God had other idea’s He prompted me to use Thomas Nelson.

Thank you WestBow Press I could not have completed this without you or the love of God.

WestBow Press authors who’d like to share a 350-600 word experience related to the self-publishing of their books, are invited to do so by sending a message through the WestBow Press Facebook page and follow the WestBow Press Twitter account @WestBowPress. WestBow Press reserves the right to edit stories for content, grammar, punctuation and length.

People laugh when they hear my answer to their “Can you help me write a book” question? As many now assume I now know what I am doing. I tell them to Google “how to write a book”. After they laugh, I share that I am not an expert. But my publishers at WestBow Press are experts.On September 7th, 2014, the fourth anniversary of our son’s death; something pretty cool always happens. That day I received the green light to write
his story. My friend who was praying over me said that I needed to start today. So I did. I started doing research that day. At first I was just going to write a pamphlet. I looked at “word”…no help. I at least thought I could write his story on a piece of paper, fold it like a pamphlet and hand it out to people. So I started writing. Ha..already too much for a pamphlet. Wasn’t gonna work, so I then went to Google. I searched how to write a book. At some point I saw a form to fill out on google about writing my story.

I am usually not one to fill out forms as I know what happens. They call you. And in an age where we receive phone calls from two solar and one construction company daily; I just wasn’t up for one more from a publishing company. So I typed my phone# as 999-999-9999. Slick huh? Well on September 22 I received an email from a woman at WestBow. They said my phone number didn’t work. Imagine that? Ok…what the heck. So I called her back. She exceeded my expectations. She loved my story of my son’s death…well, not that he died. But all the incredible things that happened before and after to prove how much God was taking care of him. Before he passed from this earth of course. And she wasn’t reading from a script.

Emily with her husband, Bill; daughter, Leanne and late son, Tim.

I have this silly rule. If I can picture you as a salesperson in a meeting learning what to say, I end the conversation. Picky? Yes I am. But I’ve learned that thinking the friction I feel will go away, rarely works for me. But she seemed to get me, and felt connected to the company right away.

My husband and I thought it best to at least see if I could write a book before we put money down. Could I have tried to find a mainstream publisher? I suppose so. I think my story is as good. Just as good as any plot line in a Christian movie. But I wanted to feel taken care of, not shuffled around for years. This was my baby (literally as it’s about my son) and I wanted the best.

I searched WestBow on YouTube and listened to authors rave about their experience with WestBow. It was looking like a company I could trust. I had written the first three chapters, and called them. It was now a young man named Aaron. He was a joy to talk with. I explained my story and he “got it” as well.

So on December 22nd I signed up for the largest package. My dad taught me “come big or stay at home.” If I was going to do this, I might as well get the best possible chance for my book. And we were off. I had no idea what to expect. Though they told me. They sent me forms. And I am no expert, but authors don’t always read, we write. Joking. But they we’re wonderful along the way. Jennifer was so patient with me. Explaining things to me each step of the way. (Even though I am sure somewhere in my email box sat an email with all the steps spelled out–joking, I read it…once).

Tim lives on through Emily’s book’s cover.

“It’s not easy or everyone would do it,” applies to writing a book. It is complicated, well maybe for novices anyway. But WestBow made the process doable as everything was one step at a time. Did I have to work at this? Well, yes of course. They don’t write the books for you. But it was nice to know everything was legal and done the right way.

I could’ve just done the ebook craze. But I wanted a real; hold it in your hand, in need of a bookmark book. I wanted it to be amazing, and they didn’t disappoint. I still look at the beautiful cover and am in awe that the image of my beautiful son and I are on the cover of a book. If I do nothing else in my life…I can at least say. I have authored a book. Thanks to God and to the wonderful people at WestBow that made it possible.

As September 7th 2015, the fifth anniversary of his death I held my book in my hands. God again, took care of us. As He always does.

WestBow Press authors who’d like to share a 350-600 word experience related to the self-publishing of their books, are invited to do so by sending a message through the WestBow Press Facebook page and follow the WestBow Press Twitter account @WestBowPress. WestBow Press reserves the right to edit stories for content, grammar, punctuation and length.

God is faithful. He is worthy to be exalted in every area of this earthly life, even with writing a fantasy novel like I did. I wholeheartedly believe God called me to write “The Kingdom of Arke” to share the light of Christ onto the darkness of sin. I believe Jesus taught in stories, otherwise known as parables, for a reason. I don’t claim to be Jesus, but I do claim Christianity so I try my very best to imitate him. I wrote “The Kingdom of Arke” to reflect the darkness of sin and the light of Christ’s love.

My imagination has always been unique. I have been writing since kindergarten. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t write a novel when I was five. It was bound by staples and filled with barely legible handwriting. I wrote another book when I was seven and placed it into my schools writing competition. They disqualified my entry because they said I had cheated, claiming there was no way I had written it on my own. That being said, writing has always been a calling on my life.

I grew up in Clearwater, Florida and had an amazing childhood. My father found another job and we moved to western Kentucky when I was 13 years old. At that time, I was diving headlong into fantasy books such as “Narnia,” “The Hobbit,” “Redwall” and “Beyond the Summerland.” For a 13 year old with an active imagination, moving to a state with plenty of woods, fields, and rivers was like moving to middle-earth.When I was much younger, around eight, I had terrible nightmares and would see dark shadows lurking in my bedroom. At the time, I had never been so scared in my life. A deep seeded fear of darkness had been placed in my heart. Though, what the enemy used for evil, God has used for good.

“The Kingdom of Arke” isn’t like other stories. It doesn’t start off with a grand adventure and end with a celebration. It begins with a dark chase that doesn’t end with the protagonist getting away to safety. I’ll let you find out exactly what happens.

Without darkness, we cannot truly appreciate the light. I believe in those words more than anything I have ever written. My hope is that this book will reach those who would never be found in a church, but constantly find themselves in bookstores lost within another realm.

Equipped with my story, I needed a way to share it. I Googled how to self-publish a book and WestBow Press was my first choice. From the moment I spoke with one of their consultants, I was all in. Through the entire process WestBow kept surprising me with their expertise and kindness. There wasn’t one person I talked to that wasn’t eager to help and excited to get my book in the hands of the reader.

Finally, I want to thank everyone at WestBow Press for giving someone like me the opportunity to make my greatest dream come true. To share Christ’s love the best way I know how—through a good story.

WestBow Press authors who’d like to share a 350-600 word experience related to the self-publishing of their books, are invited to do so by sending a message through the WestBow Press Facebook page and follow the WestBow Press Twitter account @WestBowPress. WestBow Press reserves the right to edit stories for content, grammar, punctuation and length.

I’m not a writer. How this book came into being is a mystery to me that only God knows. I was born in Northeast London to Jamaican parents. I don’t remember much of my childhood only to say I had blocked most of it from an early age. In my early teens my family moved to Jamaica in the late nineteen seventies and that was a culture shock.

One of the key areas that was a challenge to me growing up was not only to be a man, but by whose standards. Socially it was considered manly to
have as many women as possible. In my family it was considered manly to be as humanly strong as possible and church-wise it was considered manly to be the ultimate ‘know all’ and ‘be-all’ of men. It was tough trying to navigate through so many ideals. But thankfully, my best friend was the Lord.

Heeding His call I returned to the U.K.in the late two thousand. To get a job was tough. I didn’t understand it then, but what God was doing in my life was something like the children of Israel in the wilderness. Taking me through a transformational thinking process from thinking as an employee to becoming self-employed where your income came from what was inside you.

It was my last interview for a bookkeeping job I really thought I had. After being rejected so many times I thought this must be it. I was sitting on my bed waiting for the call, and then it hit me. You know when you get that sudden realization that what you hoped for wasn’t going to come. The penny dropped, so to speak.

I cried for about ten minutes, then went on my knees and prayed. “Lord, if you don’t want me to work then given me something … and Lord I need it now because one more day just will not do.” Then I heard a voice say “Get up”. I got up. Then He said “Now go to your computer.”I went to the next room where my computer was then my instinct kicked in to turn it on and turn to a blank page. ‘Now what’ I thought to myself. Then the voice came back and said “Write what you see.” I closed my eyes and it was as if I was looking through the eyes of a boy maybe 10 or 12 years old. His hands and knees were bloody. Then I typed my first line. “My feet and knees were bleeding from the walk.”

Over the next two weeks stories flowed out of me and just when the last drop poured out to finish twelve stories, the window closed. Those I called ‘Sons’. A few months later I challenged myself to write again but this time I had to research and use notes. ‘Fathers’ was born. Being a ‘Christmas child’ the Nativity was my most fun work to do. My most challenging work was the Easter story.

As a first time writer, I believe the Lord led me to WestBow Press because I needed someone who not only I could trust but could understand my vision and goal. It has been a long and labouring road, but God is able. The whole team at WestBow have been wonderful.

The peace I had when I started with them continues now and I would recommend WestBow to anyone. Holding my first real book in my hand, seeing it come from a thought, a vision into reality is a blessing unspeakable by its self. I thank God and the team at WB.

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WestBow Press authors who’d like to share a 350-600 word experience related to the self-publishing of their books, are invited to do so by sending a message through the WestBow Press Facebook page, by tweeting us @WestBowPress, or by emailing kgray@ westbowpress.com. We may not be able to use every story, but we will read and consider them. WestBow Press reserves the right to edit stories for content, grammar, punctuation and length.